Frontline Warriors Let Down

People
rang bells, clapped hands and blew conch shells for them; a few days later,
they lit candles as a tribute to their selfless service. Yes, the nation indulged
in those symbolic gestures for the frontline warriors against corona virus –
the healthcare workers from doctors to nurses to all other categories.
Ironically, on the ground, such token deeds and expressions do not mean much as
many of them are at their wits end without the much-needed support from the
authorities. Healthcare workers have to directly deal with patients, often in
close proximity to them. Any laxity in equipping themselves with protective
gear can be fatal. Non-availability of the same across the country, probably
with some exceptions, is the norm rather than the exception. In such a
situation, many of them are sitting ducks for the virus. This is proved from
the shutting down of many hospitals wherein scores of healthcare providers have
tested positive to the disease.

Apart
from the risk of exposure to the virus, they are facing ire of the people,
which is no less than the virus attack. In hospitals, quarantined people, who
are disgusted with lack of facilities, unleash their anger on the frontline
workers. Outside the health facilities too, they are faced with hostile crowds
when they go for inspecting and monitoring corona positive cases. We got to see
bleeding health workers, who were pelted with stones, fleeing from irate mobs.
When the nation is under lockdown and most people are staying indoors, health
workers are among the few categories who have to literally sweat it out. They
are under both physical and psychological strain and stress. Many of them have
not been able to go home for days together. Separated from their near and dear
ones, they have no option but to work among corona positive and positive-prone patients.

The
frontline warriors have to fight on another front too. Despite the government
exempting them from travel restrictions to attend to their duties, often they
are at the receiving end of the police. Many of them have to move intra-state
and inter-state for work. But there are innumerable cases wherein police have
not been willing to accept their ‘travel passes’ issued by authorities. Many of
them also face boycott by residents of the area or apartments where they live.
Though the government has come out with laws to make attack on health workers a
cognizable, non-bailable offence, such ill-treatment continues to be meted out
by them. The most heart-wrenching news came from Tamil Nadu where people
fiercely objected to the burial of a well-known doctor who died of corona
virus. The police and his friends had to move from one place to another,
carrying his body, pleading with people not to obstruct his burial.

But
all is not lost. In Kerala, which has emerged as a model State for containing
the contagious disease, and in some other places, health workers, especially
doctors and nurses, are held in high esteem. We have seen colleagues,
co-workers and patients giving them emotional farewells as they leave hospitals.
They have been given training to cope with the virulent virus and equipped with
protective kits. Bucking the general trend, in some other places too we have
witnessed residents lining up with flowers to receive health workers who returned
after completing their quarantine period. Unless the frontline warriors are
given their due, fight against the deadly virus will face many barriers.